The mystical path of Islam: remembrance of God, the master-disciple chain, and the orders that carry it, crossing the Sunni and Shia branches alike.
Sufism is Islam's interior path, organized from the twelfth century in orders (tariqas) that link disciples to masters in chains reaching back to the Prophet. It is a movement, not a branch: it runs through Sunni Islam, where most orders stand, and into Shia Islam, whose devotional life it also shaped.
This movement also stands under Shia Islam, because a movement crosses branches and is never forced into one.
Sufism across the site
Sources
Primary
- Jalal al-Din Rumi, the Masnavi.
Secondary
- Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam (1975).